I apologise in advance for the length of this update...and of course for the fact that it's unfinished and unedited...i ran out of time but figured it was better to post something rather than nothing. I shall try to finish on my phone on my bus back to base in the morning, but knowing me i'll end up sleeping instead! Apologies...
Of course, also for the mass of things that i've simply forgotten. In fact it's always so strange to look back at a period of time in the army; in this case 3 weeks, and realise that the amount that you actually remember only makes up a few days. I have absolutly no idea what i did for the entire period of time, i guess something interesting...(perhaps)
Week 1:
Arrived onto base with a bag bigger than me, with clothes enough for two weeks. A half day filled with classes, followed off by what i clearly remember to be one of the best sport sessions we've ever done. Why do i clearly remember this? Well the next morning i woke up in pain. "good" you say. Hmmm not so. The next morning i was told that i would be heading to another base for a 24 hour gibbush. Awesome. Going to a gibbush to prove your strengths whilst all your muscles are in pain and weakened.this is always such great news.
The gibbush though was actually rather excellent.Though at the beginning they very nearly didn't let me participate due to me accidently ticking no to "have you had 7 hours sleep"...that was a small stress indeed.
It was amazing to meet all the girls with similar interests, but incredibly daunting at the same time. Basically because up until that point whenever i spoke hebrew to anyone it was with people at base (who either are also learning, or are mefekedets who are used to understanding what must sound similar to baby speak) or to my friends (who are very patient with me). The girls at the gibbush however speak at a crazy speed and mumble 100% or their words together. Put me up against one and i may be able to communicate-maybe-but a group of them all talking at the same time. WOW.
That's actually the thing that i found hardest from the gibbush, the communication. Physically i really think that we didn't do too much. We did;
- the standard test of pushups and situps (as much as you can do properly up until 48 and 86-proudly i did the max!
- an activity that i'd half been expecting-i read quite a few blogs of lone soldiers before i came here. Like so: They split us up into two groups (so about 5 in each group) give us one shovel (but not a normal one at all, a mini one about the length of an arm with the blade bending itself constantly-clearly got to me!) and made us dig under a string which was about 20cm off the ground. You had to dig under the string to make space to get under. However; 1) each space was only ok for 3 girls, therefore needed 2 spaces. 2) with only one shovel hands had to be used (fun as we were digging rock) and 3) if you touched the string you had to tell the mefakedet and then go to the back and do 20 pushups. As expected i ended up doing around 100 pushups therefore my arms where similar to jelly. We must've been digging for around 20 minutes, but i think it was good. I have no actual idea what their looking for in an activity like that, but it's like this. At the start the girls had the shovel so i was digging like a crazy person with my hands. After about 2 sets of "oh g-d i touched" pushups i was finally handed the shovel to assist. From that point on (apart from the times i was doing punishment pushups) i was helping by shoveling like a mad person. My arms were shaking, sweat dripping everywhere (a beautiful site i'm sure) but not once did i break for even a second. I'm also not sure if it's a good thing at all, but at one point the mefakedet said i wasn't allowed to speak anymore. I am hoping that's good.... maybe was showing too much commanding role or something!
- After that we did this crazy crawling activity. Not too much to it aside from crawling around on elbows and knees for again about 20 minutes in groups of 3. My group was really great, myself and another girl started a call "smal yamin, smal yamin" which actually really helped us all to get through. And we worked well as a team... at least i think so.
- we did a bunch of team work activities which were really difficult because of language but as before, i have no idea what their looking for. Whether we had what they wanted or not who knows.
The thing with the gibbush is that the whole time there are a team of at least 5 people analysing your everymove.
Up until today (nearly 3 weeks after), i still have no idea of the result of the gibbush...but ultimatly what can i do. Pass or fail, it's over and is what it is. If i didn't pass i will redo it next round of gibbushim but in the meantime go to a non cravi unit. As i've realised there are millions of jobs that i can do, so to be open minded is advantageous. Saying that, i'm still set on oketz. And won't stop until i get it. (how's that for open?)
The very next day i was given a yom siddurim to look at an army apartment. FINALLY. which was so much better than it sounds because back at base the girls had started guarding once again. Infact they'd started the second day of my gibbush. Let me tell you now, arriving back onto base after everyone has been guarding around the clock and are therefore all tired and grumpy is a killer to a good mood. Which pretty much raps up the rest of the week, guarding and hebrew lessons. What fun.
An interesting thing that occured; met a mefakedet from karacal on base. Had a rather interesting, long chat with her about the unit. Seems like fun... hard work very hard work, but fun. Infact she said she'd check if i passed the gibbush for me, but in true israeli style never actually did. Which i think i'm actually ok with, wouldnt've have been fair to know before everyone.
Week 2
The second week was similar to the first (surprised?) except that they decided to pack absolutly everything into it that they possibly could. Aside from guarding around the clock we had a slight scare because of something that occured on a nearby base. I'm sure none of you heard anything about it on the news, but 4 masked men somehow got onto a base, tied up someone and stole 4 m16's. Because of that we doubled the guards at one position and, well actually that's about all we did. OH also, i wasn't allowed to leave my gun with the rasap (crazy girl in charge of alot), and go for a run. So that sucked.
Ended up caf caf one day which was actually one of my favourite days. caf caf is basically wearing all the gear, all the time with 5 magazines of bullets instead of 3. You work in a team of 4 and if you get a call of hakbatza you have to sprint to hamal (sort of the central control office thing), or wherever your needed in 3 minutes. It was so much fun though, and to be honest, kindof loved having the free hour and not worrying about showering. So very chilled and worryfree. Even sleeping in full uniform (boots and all) was fine.
We ended off the week with a masa, the army likes to end every big event with a masa and a chet with pushups. Except that in the case of michve eilon the hike was something like 4 km's..still rather fun, won't lie. and funny, in the chet with pushups very few of the mefakdot could actually do them. Made me giggle anyway.
the day of the hike was quite an interesting one for me. I had a stroke of stress, or something like that anyway. I was a mess in an all around grumpy mood. Answering smartly back to my mefakedet tironout, telling my mefakedet ivrit that the whole thing was a waste of time. Doing a classic louise, I feel sad so i'm going to make you feel sad. Not my nicest trait at all. Had a half hour cry to my good friend manorina which was incredible, sometimes it really does help to just cry! then even more talking and crying with other friends but that's not all.
In the chet of the rasap (we have it everynight after hour free time, before bed) i was told to go to the line of attention. (Downstairs near the area of mefakedets, literally a red line where you stand at attention and yell "attention mefakedet") out comes my mefakedet. Someone had told her i wanted to speak to her (which i did, i wanted to apologise for being a tool), but that ended up with me being a blabbering mess, sobbing for half an hour. Did i mention how patient these mefakdot are. To understand my hebrew is hard at the best of times, but inbetween my crying that must be impossible. It is SO frustrating to struggle to explain how you feel in a foreign language when you know 100% that the person you're talking to is fluent in english. That really sucks
In the chet of the rasap (we have it everynight after hour free time, before bed) i was told to go to the line of attention. (Downstairs near the area of mefakedets, literally a red line where you stand at attention and yell "attention mefakedet") out comes my mefakedet. Someone had told her i wanted to speak to her (which i did, i wanted to apologise for being a tool), but that ended up with me being a blabbering mess, sobbing for half an hour. Did i mention how patient these mefakdot are. To understand my hebrew is hard at the best of times, but inbetween my crying that must be impossible. It is SO frustrating to struggle to explain how you feel in a foreign language when you know 100% that the person you're talking to is fluent in english. That really sucks
We finished off the week with a hebrew test, which took the stress out of everybody. The test was apparently the same one that you do on the tsav rishon... i however never did a test. I do remember them trying to talk to me in hebew alot, but not understanding anything. i guess if i did the test originally i got a 0. Came out of the test on base feeling like i'd done terribly, chatted to my tester alot but understood very little of the sentences that i'd had to read, and done badly at the activities i'd had to do. Apparently everyone felt the same...which is strangly comforting. But like the gibbush, can't do anything about it now. Take comfort in that at least.
To finish this off...... (rather late)
The weekend of the second week i moved into the new apartment, still need to take photos to show but a really nice place. 5 other girl soldiers living there, i share a room with one. All good. Ultimately it hardly matters because i'm hardly ever home!
The interesting part of the week was that we went to Jerusalem We toured around Mt Herzl, Old city and Yad vashem. Did some silly (but fun) women self defence class which was clearly geared up to give women self confidence to say no...but was just entertaining to me considering my background.
Yad Vashem was done at super speed, 2 hours or something only, but we were suplied with a guide that spoke english (the whole course broke up into russian, english or hebrew). As expected was very emotional and interesting i even got the chance to tell Grannies story to my group.
The best part about our trip to Jerusalem though, was the old city. We were a tourist attraction. Which just seemed so bizarre. I clearly remember going through the old city and sneakily taking photo's of soldiers last time i was in Israel. This time people where doing it with us. At the end of the day we finished by doing a large chet with the whole course in front of the wailing wall. During the ceremony as well as singing hatikva (sadly very very out of time with each other) we were handed army issued tanach's. My very first!
Ultimately it was a very powerful experience. I've actually dreamt of having an army ceremony in front of the wailing wall since i decided i wanted to join the IDF.
To finish this off...... (rather late)
The weekend of the second week i moved into the new apartment, still need to take photos to show but a really nice place. 5 other girl soldiers living there, i share a room with one. All good. Ultimately it hardly matters because i'm hardly ever home!
The interesting part of the week was that we went to Jerusalem We toured around Mt Herzl, Old city and Yad vashem. Did some silly (but fun) women self defence class which was clearly geared up to give women self confidence to say no...but was just entertaining to me considering my background.
Yad Vashem was done at super speed, 2 hours or something only, but we were suplied with a guide that spoke english (the whole course broke up into russian, english or hebrew). As expected was very emotional and interesting i even got the chance to tell Grannies story to my group.
The best part about our trip to Jerusalem though, was the old city. We were a tourist attraction. Which just seemed so bizarre. I clearly remember going through the old city and sneakily taking photo's of soldiers last time i was in Israel. This time people where doing it with us. At the end of the day we finished by doing a large chet with the whole course in front of the wailing wall. During the ceremony as well as singing hatikva (sadly very very out of time with each other) we were handed army issued tanach's. My very first!
Ultimately it was a very powerful experience. I've actually dreamt of having an army ceremony in front of the wailing wall since i decided i wanted to join the IDF.
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